Council leader Cllr David Lee insisted deciding to make Wokingham Enterprise Limited dormant was not a "key decision"

Council leaders insisted a taxpayer-owned firm was not an ‘ideologically driven failed experiment’ after the opposition attacked the decision to put it on hold.

Liberal Democrats flagged up the decision to place Wokingham Enterprises Limited (WEL) into a dormant status, forcing a report examining the issue at Wokingham Borough Council’s full council meeting on Thursday.

Council leader Councillor David Lee insisted the action had not been a ‘key decision’ made contrary to the council’s constitution.

Cllr Prue Bray, leader of the Wokingham Liberal Democrats, said: “The report denies this was a key decision. A complete change of mind in how to handle a project worth tens of millions of pounds; the beginning of the end of a costly, ideologically driven, two-year failed experiment in hiving council business off to the private sector where nobody can find out what’s going on; but apparently it isn’t significant.

“WEL was a mistake that shouldn’t have been made. No wonder the executive wanted its demise to slip through with as little fanfare as possible.”

WEL was launched two years ago to oversee the town’s regeneration but council bosses announced it would be put on hold in October after claiming it had achieved its aims.

The report, carried by the council, judged the action had not been a key decision because there were no financial implications, that a movement to dormant status means the company remains a ‘legal entity’ and that the council had decided in July 2011 to directly fund the town centre regeneration and therefore would directly own assets during development.

Cllr Lee insisted WEL had saved the council ‘substantial sums of money’ and rubbished thoughts the council could set up the regeneration without it as ‘pure madness’.

“The very fact we haven’t had anything like this before shows we do things correctly,” Cllr Lee said. “This decision is not costing money – ending it is saving money. It has achieved a lot for the council and now the decision has been made to make it dormant.”

Cllr Prue Bray added that she saw signs the move had been a ‘rushed decision because of an urgent problem’ and that the report ‘effectively revealed that WEL could have been shut down as long ago as July 2011’.

Cllr Lindsay Ferris added: “I have no problem with attempts to try to do things differently, but the way this has been handled reinforces out growing concern at the lack of commercial competence in the council.”

Cllr Rob Stanton responded: “The decision to put it in a dormant status was not made as suggested over a year ago.

“This was not an experiment and it was not ideological. It was a sensible methodology.”